Truth or Firewhiskey
by Ogden'sOldFirewhiskey
Summary: Lily and James oneshot from their seventh year. A quick, fluffy take on how they got together. Lily swallowed, feeling the burn of the firewhiskey all the way down her throat and into her stomach, sending warmth to her fingers and toes. She didn't really know where she was walking to, only that the Common Room was much too loud for her at the moment and she fancied a bit of air.


Lily swallowed, feeling the burn of the firewhiskey all the way down her throat and into her stomach, sending warmth to her fingers and toes. She didn't really know where she was walking to, only that the Common Room was much too _loud_ for her at the moment and she fancied a bit of air.

She was just tipsy enough to know she was drunk, but not so much as to care. It was the perfect amount, she decided, as she took another liberal sip from her goblet.

"Save some for the rest of us," said a voice from behind her.

Her stomach lurched and her heart jumped into her throat at the sound of his voice, but she ignored that.

"I think you've already had your share," she retorted, hoping the dimly lit corridor would obscure the faint flush she was sure lit up her cheeks.

She turned to see James standing there, his own goblet in hand, still in his Quidditch robes. It struck her then that he was tall. "Evans, are you calling me drunk?" he asked, smirking slightly.

Lily shrugged, smiling in return. "I don't know. _Are_ you drunk?"

"Are _you_?"

"A bit."

"Me too."

Lily smiled. "Want to walk with me?"

James looked faintly surprised, which reminded her that she wasn't supposed to ask him to walk with her. In fact, she wasn't supposed to look at him at all.

Before she could take it back, though, he'd said, "Okay."

They started walking aimlessly, both drinking periodically from their goblets in a not-uncomfortable silence.

"Why'd you leave the party?" James asked suddenly.

"Bit crowded. Also I didn't particularly want to bear witness to the strip game of Exploding Snap that Bertram Aubrey was trying to start."

James guffawed. "Did anyone?"

"What about you? Why'd you leave your own party?"

 _I was looking for you_. "As flattering as the offer to be his partner was, Aubrey isn't really my type. Besides, it isn't my party. The whole team won."

"Yes, but I mean… You're the captain. And you did score something like eighty points."

James paused, surprised that she remembered how many points he had scored. "Something like that… Watching me closely, were you?"

Lily wasn't sure if she successfully hid her blush, but her voice sounded normal, at least. "I _always_ root for Gryffindor, Potter."

"Right."

If she were being honest, she _had_ been watching James more closely than was probably normal for a completely objective person. He just looked so natural up in the air, it was hard not to watch him. Even when he didn't have the Quaffle, he just looked… alive. That was it. Alive.

Alive was a perfectly neutral adjective, wasn't it?

"You really love it," she remarked.

"Quidditch? Yeah, of course I do. It's brilliant."

"No but I mean, you _really_ love it."

James peered at her, not entirely sure what she was getting at. "Well… yeah."

Lily suddenly felt a bit stupid and rushed to explain. "Well I mean obviously most people who play Quidditch love it to some degree. You'd have to be mad to dedicate all that time if you didn't. But not everyone loves it like you."

"How d'you know that?" he asked, hoping his voice didn't betray the fact that his heart was beating rather quickly.

"It's just this… look on your face when you play. Like you're really serious but at the same time you're… really really happy."

James did not know what to say to this. He didn't really have the emotional wherewithal to try to figure out what it meant that she'd noticed something like that about him. But maybe that was just _Lily_. She noticed stuff like that about everyone.

Lily, meanwhile, felt that perhaps she should stop drinking. She'd said too much and now he was looking at her with a strange expression on his face as though he thought she was barking. Well, maybe she was a little mad.

She was thankful when he broke the silence and said, "Let's go up here."

They climbed the steps to the top of the Astronomy Tower. When they reached the top, James sat with his back to the wall, staring out over the grounds. It was a beautiful clear night, the crescent moon reflected in the inky black waters of the lake.

Lily didn't dare turn her head to look at him. Rather, she felt him next to her, the heat radiating off his body. She sat just close enough to feel it, but not so close that they were touching. She was toeing a lot of lines tonight. She took another sip of firewhiskey.

"Want to play a game?" James asked.

"If you ask me to play strip Exploding Snap I'm going to hex you."

James smirked. "I meant a drinking game."

Lily said yes before she really considered the matter.

"Alright, truth or dare then. You don't do what you're asked, you have to drink. If you do, the other person drinks."

"We're just going to drink every time."

"That's sort of the _point_ of a drinking game, Evans."

"Alright."

"Truth or dare, then?" said James, his lips twitching upwards and his hazel eyes shining.

"Er… truth."

"Who was your first snog?"

Lily snorted at this. "Leonard Price."

" _Leonard Price_?"

"He's sweet."

"He's an idiot."

"He was nice!"

"I can't believe you snogged Leonard Price."

"Aren't you supposed to drink or something?"

James took a swig from his goblet.

"Truth or dare."

James smiled. "Truth."

"Erm… well, who was yours then?"

"Very original question, Evans."

"Well, I want to know!"

James sighed. "Penelope Burbage."

Lily could not say she was entirely surprised. Penelope had always had a lot of boyfriends. "She still fancies you, you know."

"Does she?"

"Yeah, she talks about you in the loo all the time."

"Fascinating."

"Do you?"

"Do I what? Talk about myself in the loo? Even I'm not _that_ self-centered, Evans."

"No, I mean, do you fancy Penelope Burbage."

James turned and stared at her oddly. _What sort of question was that_? _Was she that dense?_ "Not in the slightest. Now drink up."

Lily gulped her drink, feeling unusually pleased that the long blonde hair and blue eyes of Penelope Burbage had not held James' interest.

"Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Not feeling very daring tonight, Evans?"

"I just want to know what you want to ask me."

Perhaps she shouldn't have said that, but the firewhiskey was making it difficult to censor herself. Or maybe it was something about the look in his eyes.

"Fair enough. In third year, when I asked you to Hogsmeade for the first time, you said yes at first and then you changed your mind. Why?"

Lily was surprised he even remembered this, let alone cared enough to ask. "Well… you hexed Sev… Snape in the corridor."

"Ah."

If he had any more thoughts on this, he did not share them. Instead, he took a long drink from his goblet.

"Truth or dare."

"Truth."

"Not feeling very daring, Potter?"

"I wouldn't say that."

She couldn't fathom what that meant. Instead, she searched for a question. Finally, she landed on one. "Why'd you stop?"

"Why'd I stop what?"

"Asking me to Hogsmeade."

James felt his heart accelerate. _That_ was certainly a pointed question. He looked at her, hoping his face would convey what he couldn't say. _Wasn't it obvious?_

"What?" she asked, strangely breathless.

Apparently not obvious enough. He laughed mirthlessly. "A bloke can only be turned down so many times." There. A portion of the truth.

"Oh," she said.

"Yeah."

"Sorry."

"Sorry?"

"For… I was a bit rude, sometimes."

James laughed, a real laugh this time. "Well, so was I. Me a bit more than you."

Lily took a long sip from her drink, her mind decidedly fuzzy now.

"Truth or dare," he asked.

"Truth."

"This whole truth or dare question at the beginning is becoming rather redundant."

"Just ask the question, Potter."

"Fine, fine. Are we friends?"

Lily spluttered for a moment before saying indignantly. "Well of course we are!"

"Well, _I_ don't know. You're bloody confusing."

" _I'm_ confusing?"

"Yes," he said simply, his mind too hazy to fully articulate what he'd meant.

" _How_ am I confusing?"

"You just… are."

"Well thanks, that was so informative. Novels will be written about the depth of that response."

"Just drink."

"It's your turn to drink."

"Oh." He drank.

"Truth or dare?" she asked.

"Truth."

She rolled her eyes. "Why did you have to ask if we were friends?"

"That's cheating!"

"What's cheating?"

"You can't ask a question about a question!"

"Says who?"

"Well, no one. It just doesn't seem fair."

"Well so long as _you_ don't think it's fair…"

"I don't. Come up with another one."

She fell silent, and in the silence he evaluated himself. He was drunk, but not overly so. Lily Evans was sitting tantalizingly close to him, almost as though she were rigidly maintaining an inch distance between them. She could've moved further away, he reckoned. But she hadn't. And he could smell her strawberry shampoo.

He really wanted to close that inch of distance between them. But that would deconstruct everything he'd been trying so damn hard to build. He'd tried to move on, he really had. He'd even thought he might have had genuine feelings for Cassidy Turkell, but it was nothing to the strange magnetism he felt in this moment, in every moment, really, that he was with Lily.

Fuck it. He closed the distance, leaning ever so slightly so that their arms were touching now. It wasn't so obvious, she could just think that he was too drunk to sit up straight and she could easily move, no harm done.

She didn't move her arm.

Lily felt as though her face was on fire. Just say it. Just ask. She could feel his arm pressed up against hers and the pull she felt toward him was so powerful it ached. She wanted him much much closer. She wanted him to smile crookedly at her and ruffle his hands through his hair and she wanted him to say something witty like he always did. This was absurd. She was absurd. She'd had too much firewhiskey. But maybe she hadn't had enough.

"You still haven't asked me anything," said James, his voice slightly husky.

She couldn't look at him. They both stared rigidly straight ahead, their arms pressed firmly against one another. Lily could feel herself leaning into him, her heart beating rapidly with the anticipation of what she wanted to ask.

Finally, she broke the silence. "Do you… do you want to kiss me as badly as I want to kiss you?"

The words reached James' ears slowly. _What?_

He turned to her, finally locking eyes with her. Their faces were inches apart. He could see the faint smattering of freckles across her nose and her bright green eyes, dulled in the night but perhaps more startling because of it. She had a determined look in her eye, although there was a bit of vulnerability there. His heart was pounding.

"You've no idea," he managed, before closing the distance between them and pressing his lips firmly against hers.

She responded enthusiastically, hungrily. He placed one hand on her cheek and the other at her waist, pulling her closer to him, closer because she was much too far away. He'd dreamed of this moment for years but his imagination was shit compared to the feeling of her arms wrapped around his neck, her slight whimpering as he kissed her more hungrily still.

Lily couldn't think, could only feel her bubbling desire. All she knew was that he was not close enough, they were not close enough. That ache in her chest was simultaneously satisfied and craving more, as she shivered from James' touch.

Suddenly James pulled away. His eyes were unfocused and glazed over, but he pressed his forehead against hers. "Am I… is this… are you alright?"

"James," she said, desire winning any battle with her remaining embarrassment handily. "Please just… just kiss me. Please."

James growled and roughly pulled her to her feet and pressed her firmly against the wall of the tower with his body, his kiss open-mouthed and urgent.

She pressed herself into him and he groaned in the back of his throat. Merlin, he was a good kisser. He started kissing her along her jaw, in the nape of her neck and she felt goosebumps shoot down her body. He reached her ear and nibbled gently on her ear lobe. He whispered. "You've no idea how long I've wanted to do this."

"Me too," she murmured.

At this, James suddenly pulled back. "Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"How long?"

"I don't know. A year maybe?"

"A year? A fucking year?" he asked, a look of incredulity on his face. "You're telling me that you wanted me to push you up against a wall for a year?"

"Well, yes."

"Well, why the fuck didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't know how you felt!"

James had to laugh at this. He could feel her body pressed firmly against his, the smell of strawberries in his nose. He pulled her into a hug, loving the feeling of her head against his chest. "You didn't know how I felt," he muttered into her hair.

"Well, you'd dated a lot of other people and for all I knew you didn't feel anything for me anymore!"

James laughed again, kissing the top of her head. He put his hand under her chin and forced her to look at him, his hazel eyes meeting her green ones.

"Lily I… Merlin, how could you not know?"

He kissed her lips softly this time, gently, one hand under her chin. He pulled back and was pleased to see that her eyes looked glazed over and as dumbstruck as his.

"Well, you haven't exactly said," said Lily.

James chuckled. "Of course I fancy you, you idiot."

"Oh," she said, a faint smile on her lips. "I fancy you too."

James smiled widely. "Good." He leaned down to kiss her again.


End file.
